One of the last steps in any operation involving a hose, be it a gardening hose or a fire hose is to wind the hose for storage for its next use. Particularly with fire hoses, what sounds like a simple operation is in fact an arduous task, often too much for one person. The weight and diameter of the hose make it both heavy and awkward for a single individual to wind effectively into a tight coil for storage. Further, if the hose is to be wound at a job site or otherwise at a location remote from where the hose is normally stored, it must be wound and then be easily moveable to a different location.
Although there have been numerous attempts in the past to address this problem and devise an acceptable solution, the devices conceived by these attempts suffer from numerous disadvantages such that the predominant method in use today is a manual one whereby one or more individuals manually wind the hose about a reel or support. For example, many of the devices disclosed in the prior art do not offer sufficient portability and ease of use, with the ability for one person to easily remove the wound hose from the device.
Examples of devices in the prior art which suffer from some or all of the disadvantages thus described include:
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